Saturday, 7 April 2007

One moment we decided to go, just like that. We wished our trip to be something of a research, a learning journey, a documentation of projects and ideas on sustainability. But then we asked ourselves: isn´t driving a car to research sustainability a bit of a contradiction? Shouldn´t we just all stay where we are to save the climate once and for all?

It is a painful question, and all travelers on this planet should at least think about it a bit. Most likely we do not like to ask ourselves this question, and push it away again when it appears. It is a hard topic, because it is about guilt. We just don´t want to be confronted with it, and so we look away. For a long time, environmental organizations, governments and companies have put a large part of the blame for pollution and environmental crisis at the consumers side. The consumer decides. ´A better world starts with you´ carries the hidden threat: also a dirty, spoiled and polluted world starts with you. The message is: If one is to blame, it is you! And most consumers say, yeah, sure, but most pollution is done by companies and governments, let them do something about it. And in the end, nothing really happens.So let´s stop blaming and putting guilt with it because it does not work and it is not about being guilty but simply about taking your responsibility. A lot of environmental activists and campaigners realized lately that the best strategy is a positive one, in which people feel they can contribute one way or another. The rise of doing good is so extreme, that it changed the whole way products are marketed today. One could bring in a lot of critical remarks, but in essence this is a good and hopeful development, because instead of being guilty you can contribute yourself. So let´s forget about who is guilty and contribute to this planet in a positive way!

What this means in practice is something that could be different for anyone. For us it means to strive to consume when possible products that you know that are not produced by child slaves, with deathly pesticides, gene technology or whatever evil things are practiced. And next to that to choose small, local shops for big mega stores. For our trip we will use a climate compensator program. With this, the pollution you create is counted out and you restore the damage with planting trees (in example treesfortravel). There are nice projects with restoring damaged rainforests, it is not expensive and you travel with the knowledge that your pollution is compensated. Off course no pollution is better, but it is good if you travel anyway. So hey ho, let´s go!